“Jail the Butcher!” “Arrest Palparan!” posters were put up along the streets of Manila, to mark the first day of hearing on 21 January 2012 against the Retired Army General who has since eluded arrest 32 days since the Malolos Regional Trial Court have issued warrants against him.

Ret. Army General Jovito Palparan, along with two other colleagues, have been charged for kidnapping and serious illegal detention of Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno, UP students who have been missing more than five years ago.

Erlinda Cadapan, the mother of Sherlyn Cadapan,being interviewed after the hearing. “What I want is the truth. If they know where Sherlyn is, why did they not surface her earlier? I have been searching for more than five years,” reacted Mrs. Cadapan after Palparan’s lawyer claimed that the two missing students are still alive.

]]> http://www.chrp.org.uk/2012/photos-during-first-hearing-on-the-case-against-palparan/feed/ 0 http://www.chrp.org.uk/2012/another-one-falls/ http://www.chrp.org.uk/2012/another-one-falls/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:18:24 +0000 admin http://www.chrp.org.uk/?p=432 By Mark Dearn

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/NA07Ae01.html

7 January 2012

MANILA – The recent filing of kidnapping and illegal detention charges against prominent retired Philippine general Jovito Palparan has restored faith in President Benigno Aquino’s promised reform agenda and given cheer to the country’s many human-rights campaigners.

Palparan, a figure intimately tied to the rash of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances recorded during Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s presidency, has disappeared since the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued charges against him and three other soldiers for kidnapping two University of the Philippines students and a peasant farmer in June 2006.

After being stopped while trying to board a plane leaving the country – as was Arroyo in November – Palparan has gone into hiding with a 500,000 pesos (US$11,420) reward on his head. He has surfaced only through comments criticizing Justice Secretary Leila De Lima and a request that his arrest warrant and hold departure order be recalled while the DOJ reinvestigates the case.
The military’s clear involvement and lack of investigative progress in the abduction of Karen Empeno, Sherlyn Cadapan and Manuel Merino is emblematic of the Philippines poor human-rights situation. Although the manhunt for, and charges against, Palparan is a clear marker of intent for the Aquino administration, it is too early to be considered a watershed reform moment.

There are reasons for pessimism. The Philippine legal process is renowned for its sluggishness and failure to achieve convictions against politically powerful suspects; the net is yet to be cast beyond Palparan towards his political backers; and the dismissal of charges including rape, serious physical injury and maltreatment of prisoners reflects a reform approach characterised by giving with one hand while taking away with the other.

Before winning office in June 2010, Aquino promised to achieve justice for various human rights violations and to dismantle the country’s many heavily armed private armies. Drawing on the emotional pull of being the son of an assassinated politician father, Aquino has attempted to draw a reformist line between his and Arroyo’s administrations.

Under Arroyo, human rights violations were endemic, with perpetrators ranging from the military, to private armies, to “death squads” commanded by provincial rulers whom she courted to win elections and fight insurgencies. Victims included political rivals, insurgents, peaceful activists, journalists and petty criminals.

The killing of 58 people in Maguindanao in 2009 was a final, ignominious indictment for an administration under which the Philippines ranked alongside Colombia and Iraq for the killing with impunity of trade union activists and journalists.

Until charges were filed against Palparan, Aquino’s reforms were widely viewed as anaemic and in places politically motivated. Until now, military figures had remained untouchable, with the New York-based Human Rights Watch arguing that the military could still kill and “disappear” people “with little regard for the consequences” under Aquino’s watch.

Targeting Palparan is a key symbolic moment in a country where no senior military officer has been convicted in the past decade. The case of the “Morong 43″, a group of health workers detained on charges of cooperating with the rebel New People’s Army and released by Aquino in December 2010, never saw a proper investigation of the group’s mistreatment allegations at the hands of the military under anti-torture legislation that was amended on the same day of their release.

Aquino will seen as taking similar half-measures if Palparan escapes the other serious charges lodged against him or if he is convicted in isolation from his politically powerful patrons.

Palparan quickly cemented a reputation for ruthlessness against communist and secessionist insurgents. Four months after entering active service with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), he won his first medal in 1974 for repelling a Moro National Liberation Front (MILF) attack on a base in Sulu. He was reported at the time to have admitted that children were among the combatants, brushing off their deaths as those of “future enemies”.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Palparan twice commanded the AFP’s 24th Infantry Battalion in Central Luzon and the Cordillera where he confronted the still active communist New People’s Army. On both occasions, human-rights groups implicated Palparan in cases of extrajudicial killings, abductions and torture.

In 2001, the year Arroyo became president, Palparan was deployed to the 204th Infantry Battalion in Oriental Mindoro, where he won the moniker “the butcher of Mindoro”. He left behind a legacy of abuse, with victims of human-rights violations recorded at more than 1,000 people.

Rapid rise
Yet Palparan rose rapidly under Arroyo, who praised him as a relentless freedom fighter and promoted him from colonel to brigadier-general, major-general, and AFP chief of staff upon his return from Iraq, where he was commander of the Philippine Humanitarian Contingent. Palparan returned to the field in 2005, briefly leading the 8th Infantry Division in Samar, Eastern Visayas.
Alleged victims of military assassination included a priest, a youth organizer and a lawyer, with one civil society group estimating some 500 human-rights violations in his area. At the time, Palparan won another nickname, “the executioner of Samar”, among human rights activists and some media commentators.

It is one of his final appointments that has returned to haunt him. In 2006, he was appointed commander of the AFP’s 7th Infantry Division in Fort Magsaysay, Central Luzon. Months before his appointment as deputy national security advisor and a foray into anti-communist politics, Empeno, Cadapan and Merino were kidnapped.

Empeno and Cadapan, who were researching rural poverty for Empeno’s degree thesis, were snatched from their rented house in Bulucan, along with local farmer Manuel Merino, who was apprehended after responding to their cries for help.

Key to the case against Palparan will be the testimony of Raymond Manalo, a farmer held at the base who later escaped. Manalo claims he saw the torture of Cadapan, heard the torture of Empeno, and saw Merino set on fire by AFP soldiers. Crucially, Manalo’s testimony includes being summoned and threatened by Palparan.

In 2007, Palparan gave a seemingly revealing interview to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation where he said he “didn’t think” Cadapan and Empeno were held at the fort. He admitted in the same press interview that in relation to killings and disappearances generally that he “might have encouraged or inspired people to take the law into their hands”.

Palparan has been associated with and avoided command responsibility before. The Arroyo-established Melo Commission’s 2007 report on disappearances and extrajudicial killings – which Arroyo tried to keep secret – disavowed any “national policy” and instead recommended command responsibility charges against Palparan, who the report accused of “as responsible for an undetermined number of killings, by allowing, tolerating and even encouraging the killings”.

The charges were never adopted and Palparan was later given the administration’s blessing to run for political office after his retirement from the armed forces in 2006. The report was widely seen as a convenient tool for the exonerated Arroyo, who used it as evidence of her commitment to human rights before a concerned international community.

Aquino’s reforms, however, will need to reach much deeper. Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda last month described Palparan as “brazen” and “lavishly coddled by the former administration”. Palparan’s charges stipulate that he acted outside of his office as a “private person”. Campaign groups will likely demand to know how many of Palparan’s civilian superiors in Malacanang knew of or directed his controversial activities and whether he was indeed acting as a “private person”.

Detlev Mehlis, the German lawyer appointed to oversee the now concluded European Union-Philippines Justice Support Programme (EPJUST), argues that the criminal justice system “desperately needs reform” to secure more human-rights convictions. Mehlis, who spent 18 months in the country, said reform “requires a much bigger effort and more determination than what I saw during EPJUST’s time”.

If Palparan becomes a lone scapegoat for a legacy of widespread human-rights abuses, a victory for reformists risks being seen as more symbolic than substantial in the fight against impunity. Engaged judicial reform, the restoration of civilian control over the military, and the pursuit of Palparan’s political backers will reveal the true extent of the Aquino government’s commitment to meaningful reform.

Mark Dearn is based in Manila. He has written for openDemocracy, Africa-Asia Confidential and the Royal African Society, among others, and is a former chair of Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines, UK.

These examples serve to highlight problems in the Philippine political and legal systems which if not tackled will result in more deaths and disappearances – if following previous trends, of those who simply campaign for better lives – and the impunity of those who are responsible for them.

It is clear that there remains a need for far greater civilian control of a more professionalised military, which itself must be better educated on human rights and held to account by the courts. Breaking the dependency of national government on provincial trapos is another necessity – the manner in which such regional elites are given unremitting support by central government due to their ability to win elections or fight insurgencies highlights systemic flaws in the political system. Again, a well-funded military under firm public control would do away with the need for private militias and the well-understood risks of allowing provincial rulers to amass private armies. Here, the issue of tackling insurgencies comes to the fore – it is clear that force alone will not defeat the government’s enemies, and it is well understood that in the case of both communist and Islamic separatist conflicts, poverty in Mindanao – the country’s breadbasket – is a key driver. The government attitude of no development without peace first thus presents a conundrum which must be broached.

Underscoring all these issues is the need for deep and wide reforms to the criminal justice system – an issue CHRP has chosen to highlight this year. Believing that there is no punishment for crime only serves to incentivise would-be criminals. Here, Maguindanao must be seen as a test case setting an example to would be human rights violators.  As Detlev Mehlis – head of the now ended EU-Philippines Justice Support Programme – tells CHRP in an interview in this newsletter, the criminal justice system is in “desperate need” of reform, from the police, through to prosecutors and criminal procedures. And in this, civil society has a role to play. Ultimately, though, it is government which must take the lead. As Mehlis tells CHRP, “while civil society plays a most important role in creating awareness and observing the government, functioning courts, an effective and determined prosecution service and an effective police respected by the people can only be implemented by the elected political institutions”. And here Mehlis says there must be a “much bigger effort and more determination” than he saw when in the Philippines.

We remain hopeful that President’s Aquino will act with the determination that he promised. And where he does not, CHRP will be there to remind him of what needs to be done.

Salamat.

Mark Dearn
CHRP Chair

On November 23, two years to the day from the 2009 killing of 58 people in Maguindanao, Filipino lawyer and journalist, Carlos Zarate, Stefan Antor, a judge formerly of the European Union-Philippines Justice Support Programme (EPJUST), Jim Boumelha, president of the International Federation of Journalists, and CHRP UK chair Mark Dearn will speak at “Never Forget”, at the Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre, London.

Since the party of 58 people – including 34 journalists – were murdered en route to filing Ismael Mangudadatu’s candidacy for mayoral elections, there have been no successful prosecutions. Former local ruling family the Ampatuans have been put on trial, but the process has been dogged by delays, while many of the 195 accused remain at large.

While the Maguindanao killings highlight the way in which provincial rulers needed by national government – whether to win elections or fight insurgencies – can act with disdain for human life and the rule of law, there remain a number of human rights abuses in which the military is culpable. Human Rights Watch documents seven extrajudicial killings and three enforced disappearances carried out by the military since President Aquino came to power in 2010, with no convictions.

This year also marks the end of the 18-month, E3.9 million, EPJUST project. Implemented to help improve institutional capability around investigating and prosecuting perpetrators of human rights violations, such overseas technical assistance initiatives should be actively encouraged by the government.

By examining the lack of progress in prosecuting the alleged perpetrators and in this and many other cases of human rights violations, CHRP urges the Philippine government to act on its commitment to stopping human rights abuses and help enable the successful prosecution of human rights abusers.

CHRP believes that the 58 killings in Maguindanao in 2009 were an expected outcome of a tacit policy of supporting provincial rulers and granting them immunity from the law – as highlighted by the legacy of killings, torture and abduction that have been documented to have occurred over the course of 20 years at the hands of the Ampatuans.

“The ‘Maguindanao massacre’ was a stark evocation of the culture of impunity around abuses of human rights in the Philippines,” said CHRP chair Mark Dearn. “The lack of progress made in prosecuting the killings is a reminder of the changes needed in the judicial system.

“Being a democracy goes far beyond holding elections. The Aquino government must act on its promises and initiate the reforms long-needed to create the fair and transparent political and legal systems that will best serve the Philippine people.

“President Aquino must bring an end to the culture of impunity around human rights violations that persists in the Philippines since his election. Perpetrators of such violations must be brought to justice, and the government must work hand-in-hand with the military, police, civil society and the legal establishment to this end.”

By Ericson Acosta

Many are surely wondering, why did the military detain Acosta? Why was he imprisoned?

In what far-off corner of the islands could Barangay Bay-ang be found, and what could a writer and poet like Ericson Acosta possibly be doing there?

In truth, these are vital questions, not just to the overly curious or to the sectors that know me as an activist and cultural worker and are now calling for my release. I bore direct witness to the deliberately illicit and deceptive conduct of my arrest and detention by the authorities; directly witnessed how the very institutions that must defend my rights had instead conspired to suppress the same. These then are questions vital to anyone concerned in human rights issues, especially in the context of the dismal state of affairs in the Eastern Visayas, as well as in other parts of the country.

The latest Commission on Human Rights findings on the case of missing activist Jonas Burgos attest to the fact that widespread extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances around the country are systematically and regularly being committed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in line with their counter-insurgency program. While the AFP has not been charged nor held liable for thousands upon thousands of violations throughout the islands, citizens remain trapped in a climate of terror and fear.

In spite of the much awaited advent of justice and reform touted by the new regime of President Noynoy Aquino III, poverty endures in Eastern Visayas. Of course, Region VIII is the land of the Waray (a word which literally means “without,” “empty” or “naught”), the ethno-linguistic group inhabiting the clustered islands of Samar, Leyte and Biliran.

Local culture and tradition so permeates the lives of the Waray that it nearly overwhelms the daily tragedy of a backward agriculture and economy. Though they amuse themselves with tuba (palm wine) and kuratsa (an indigenous dance), they face a sobering reality. The absence of social justice is made even worse by natural calamities. Persistent rainfall has raised alarm against heavy landslides and flash floods in Leyte akin to those that befell Ormoc City and the town of St. Bernard. In Catbalogan City and San Jorge town in Samar, farmers expect their crops to be submerged in apo or flood – this disaster has hit them year in, year out for over 50 years.

Widespread military operations are common occurrences in the interior barrios and upland areas. The AFP boasts it has “pulverized” insurgency in the isle of Leyte, and regards the whole of Samar as a national priority. The two islands were struck in the “last salvo” of extensive militarization under Oplan Bantay Laya II (OBL II or Operation Freedom Watch II) of the Arroyo regime. The Aquino regime extended the implementation of OBL II until January 2011, before it was recently replaced with Oplan Bayanihan (Operation Teamwork). In Region VIII, this “last salvo” has been dubbed “Operation October Left Cross” by the 8th Infantry Division (8th ID) of the AFP, the armed forces division that oversees the entire Eastern Visayas.

The region has suffered tremendous aggression under OBL, and though a succession of generals ultimately served as chief of the AFP and the 8th ID, militarization in the whole of the region has assumed a single visage. Singularly the most infamous military man, the one called the “butcher,” Jovito Palparan was assigned in the island.

The human rights situation in the region

Fact-finding missions led by Katungod-Sinirangan Bisayas (Katungod-SB), the local arm of national human rights alliance Karapatan, have documented about a hundred thousand peasant and civilian victims of militarization in town centers and in the countryside throughout the region. These were the case facts I reexamined and sought to directly validate from the farmers concerned, particularly in the upland barrios of some municipalities in Samar.

The documented cases involve political assassinations, illegal arrests, forced evacuation and displacement, bombings, strafing, arson, destruction of crops, food blockades, physical and mental harassment and torture, and many others. The height of the OBL onslaught against the civilian population came in 2005, in what is often referred to now as the “Palparan era.” Nonetheless, militarization remains in full effect, carrying on with Aquino’s current Oplan Bayanihan.

Karapatan reports that in Eastern Visayas, there were 126 victims of extrajudicial killings and 27 disappearances under the Arroyo regime. These statistics represent the highest number of victims among the Visayan regions. Among those murdered were known activists and human rights advocates Atty. Felidito Dacut, Dr. Bartolome Resuello, Atty. Norman Bocar, Rev. Edison Lapus, Prof. Jose Ma. Cui, and Fr. Cecilio Lucero.

Activists and human rights groups are perpetual targets of military intimidation. Soldiers constantly threaten Katungod-SB via military sponsored radio programs on the DYMS Catbalogan station. This past year, former Katungod-SB Secretary-General Atty. Kathrina Castillo received death threats in the mail.

Massacres are not uncommon in the region. The 19th Infantry Battalion (19th IB) in Leyte, aka the “Massacre Battalion,” earned the moniker for its relentless spate of killings. The controversial deaths of renowned botanist Leonard Co and his staff in Kananga, Leyte in November 2010 were purported as the result of an encounter between the guerrilla New People’s Army (NPA) and the 19th IB. Apparently, this incident in Kananga had a precedent. Like Co and his companions, the nine who died in Kananga in 2003 were clearly deliberately shot by 19th IB soldiers – except these victims were ordinary farmers and therefore did not catch media attention. In 2005, nine more farmers, including a pregnant woman, were killed when soldiers gunned down a tiklos (a communal farming activity) in Barangay San Agustin, Palo, Leyte. The farmers who survived the gruesome massacre were arrested and slapped with manufactured criminal charges to prevent their testimony.

Suspected members or supporters of the NPA are similarly assaulted with illegal arrests. Such was the case with Dario Tomada, leader of Samahan han Gudti nga Parag-uma ha Sinirangan Bisayas (SAGUPA-SB), the regional alliance of militant farmers. Tomada survived an assassination attempt in 2005, and decided to leave the militarized region to ensure his safety. Tomada was arrested in Biñan, Laguna in July 2010 and charged with 15 counts of murder, in connection with a supposed “mass grave” discovered in Inopacan, Leyte. There are other farmers whose incarcerations remain unreported, civilians who allegedly “surrendered” and are kept in military custody against their will, and other undocumented cases.

With my own illegal arrest and detention, there are now 16 political detainees in Eastern Visayas. But as the farmers of Barangay Bay-ang will tell you, this sort of abuse – and worse – is not at all unexpected.

Where is Bay-ang?

The farmers have grown accustomed to the archaic mode of transportation in the island of Samar. Typically sold in the tabo (local markets) and on occasions such as the patron (fiesta) is that most reliable and most basic requirement of farmers for their mobility – a pair of boots. When there are even no proper roads leading to interior municipalities like Matuguinao and San Jose de Buan, what could one expect of the more remote barrios in various towns?

Barangay Bay-ang is one of the innermost barrios of the town of San Jorge, Samar. It is situated on the tri-boundary of the upland towns of San Jorge, Motiong and San Jose de Buan. Interior Bay-ang is a funnel for “nearby” barrios (several kilometers apart in actual distance) needing transportation toward the Maharlika Highway and the San Jorge town proper. There is a local port and several baloto (boats) that traverse the river.

During the Filipino-American War, Gen. Jacob Smith vowed to turn all of Samar into a “howling wilderness.” Who would imagine that this horrifying threat would be felt to this day, and in fact realized in Barangay Bay-ang and the other interior barrios of Samar?

From 2005 to 2007, Bay-ang was known as a “no man’s land.” Residents were forced to evacuate owing to intensified militarization and widespread military atrocities. Many homes were torched, not even the barangay chapel was spared. Even the image of their patron saint, but silently looking on as these attacks occurred, had been desecrated and blown up by the soldiers.

As the OBL has demonstrated all over the country, military abuse applies no distinctions to its victims – targets may include prominent church people, journalists, doctors, professors or lawyers. Mired thus in their remote dwellings and perhaps limited knowledge of the law and their basic rights, the ordinary farmer suffers vicious intimidation in the hands of soldiers on a much larger scale.

On August 8, 2005, soldiers of the 34th IB summoned Arcadio Gabani, barangay captain of Bay-ang, and Artemio Gabin, a barangay tanod (watchman). They were brought to the Purok 2 barangay hall in the San Jorge town proper and subjected to torture.

Within a few days, on August 12, farmers Rodolfo Lukaban and Lodilo Gabiana ran into 34th IB troops conducting operations, purportedly in search of NPA camps. They were forcibly used as guides in the military operations and knocked about repeatedly along the route to the suspected camps. At one point, the troops came across Artemio Ellantos who was out fetching water. The soldiers roughed him up when he could not immediately respond to their questions. A minor, 16-year-old Eyet Dacanay, was pulled from a small gathered group and beaten up in one of the houses. Dacanay was also used as a guide in their operations.

Another Bay-ang resident, Paquito Badiola, 35, suffered a crueler fate. On that very day, he encountered a separate group of 34th IB soldiers in a forested area of Barangay Mobo-ob, and was slaughtered.

Said military operations took place in less than a week, but already there were several victims. One other case is that of Nonita Gabina, whose head was bashed against a staircase while she was under investigation. She was forced to sign papers stating she had “surrendered” to the troops. A few days after the incident, soldiers burned down the hut in their farm.

Bay-ang Sangguniang Kabataan (SK, Youth Council) Chairman Nonito “Ronie” Llantos, 18, was tortured and forced to stand though bedridden with illness. Soldiers smashed his genitals with a rifle butt. His younger brother, 13-year-old Salvador, was another victim. The soldiers gave him a beating as he moved to protect an ailing Ronie.

On August 17, the residents of Bay-ang were forced to evacuate to the old Samar National Agricultural School (SNAS) building in Barangay Matalod, San Jorge. In three months time, soldiers paid a late night visit, raucously pounding the doors of the SNAS building. The evacuees were shaken and terrified anew.

Bay-ang “post-Palparan”

Two years would pass before the residents could return to Bay-ang. But in mid to late 2008 came another parade of aggravated military atrocities.

In end July 2008, a platoon of the 46th IB had encircled the barrio. From 6:00 in the evening to 5:00 the morning of following day, soldiers strafed and opened fire on the barangay chapel, several houses, as well as scampering farmers. Apart from the strafing, the soldiers practically held one family hostage as they were trapped in a house without food and deprived of sleep. Looting and razing of the farmers’ crops were also reported.

On September 5, soldiers came upon 42-year-old Ombie Labong as he worked in the fields. Accompanied by Bay-ang barangay officials, Labong revealed the details of that day’s ordeal, his torment in the hands of the soldiers, to a Tacloban radio station. He was blindfolded, beaten up, and threatened with murder if he refused to report NPA presence in their community.

Ronie Llantos survived torture in the “Palparan era,” but in three years time, soon met his doom. High noon of September 13, 2008, he was taking shelter in the field when 20th IB troops fired on the hut he then shared with brother JR Llantos, aged 12, and cousin Barton, aged 13. Ronie was shot dead.

Apparently, this vile act came too easy and was not enough for the soldiers. With wood from the hut, they set fire to Ronie’s corpse, marking their helicopter’s landing spot with his charred remains. From razed crops, to looting, to the fire-gutted houses of Inocito Gabane, Federico Lazarra, and that of the former SK Chairman reduced to ashes along with his lifeless body, the operating 20th IB troops wrought immeasurable ruin.

Like scenes taken out of a Vietnam war movie, from September 16 to 18, 2008, three fighter planes dropped 33 bombs in four separate blasts around Barangay Bay-ang in San Jorge and three other barrios in San Jose de Buan, Sitio Galutan, Barangay Canaponte, Barangay Hagbay and Barangay San Nicolas. Powerful explosions shook the ground, destroyed crops and the livelihood of hundreds of farmers from the affected barrios. The residents were once again forced to evacuate. This time the people of Bay-ang left for the San Jorge town proper.

The farmers have now gone back to Bay-ang. Bomb craters remain scattered across the landscape.

Continued militarization of the region

I was informed of the successful completion of “Tabang Samar” (Help Samar), a relief and fact-finding mission (FFM) conducted last March 10-15 in the town of Matuguinao, led by Katungod-SB and other regional organizations. FFMs like these document cases similar to the ones reported in Bay-ang and in other barrios under military repression.

Some of the FFM participants managed to visit me in prison. I thank Katungod-SB for providing me again with copies of factsheets and previously recorded testimonies made by victims of military atrocities in the region. Unfortunately, the testimonies I personally gathered from the farmers of Bay-ang and other barrios are now in the hands of the 34th IB, the perpetrators of my illegal arrest. It was neither a gun nor a grenade that was taken from me but my personal belongings, notably my laptop computer which most aroused their suspicions.

In Matuguinao, helicopters patrol the skies and carelessly land on cultivated fields. This goes on to this day – despite the cessation of the hard-line OBL. As in a line from one well-known song, news has it that these atrocities happened only to towns like Silvino Lobos and Las Navas; in truth, it is a recurring circumstance in San Jorge, in Kananga, Lope de Vega, Albuera, Balangiga, Palo, and any corner of the region plagued by militarization.

The deployment of additional troops to an already militarized region notwithstanding, the AFP and the 8th ID are also in active recruitment. In the past few months came announcements of consecutive training for new recruits: 239 in October, 333 in November; in March, 125 new recruits were sworn in for the training that would supposedly transform them from boys into “real men.” AFP spokespersons referred to them as the “new blood” that would serve the armed forces; “new blood” as well that would engage in widespread military operations continually enforced in the region.

The reforms promised by the Aquino administration have now made their way into Samar. Foreign aid agencies like the Millennium Challenge Corporation are pouring large sums into the Pantawid sa Pamilyang Pilipino Program (a government-sponsored conditional cash grant program for destitute families) and other grand Samar construction and road improvement projects. This was a frequent topic in my conversations with the farmers in the barrios. But during one interview, the farmers simply stared into their muddy boots: “Diri man namon kinahanglan an karsada (We don’t need roads),” they declared. “An hangyo namon, hustisya(What we long for is justice).”

But for whom? Will it be for Casiano Abing? Bayan Muna (People First) partylist member from Balangiga, Eastern Samar: the first victim of extrajudicial killing in the region under the Aquino administration.

Will it be for Joselito “Itok” Tobe? Farmer, Palo massacre survivor and witness: died from illness in prison, just weeks before fellow accused detainees were freed.

Will it be for these farmers hounded with debilitating disasters far worse than flood and landslides? When I was arrested, I saw for myself how they turned pale and wept as they sensed they had no choice but to leave me with the soldiers.

Is it still a wonder what a writer and poet might be doing in a far-flung barrio like Bay-ang? Perhaps our question now must be, why must it be so elusive, and seemingly unable to pop in on places such as this, that much awaited visitor whose name is Justice? 
_____
*Translated from “Isang Pagsipat sa sitwasyon ng karapatang pantao sa Silangang Kabisayaan,” published 12 April 2011 on Pinoy Weekly Online: http://pinoyweekly.org/new/2011/04/isang-pagsipat-sa-sitwasyon-ng-karapatang-pantao-sa-silangang-kabisayaan
To learn more about the author and his cause, and also see more of his work, his songs and the messages from his supporters – and to support the campaign for his release – visit http://freeacosta.blogspot.com, his prison diary at http://acostaprisondiary.blogspot.com or the Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/Free.Ericson.Acosta.FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners.
Ericson Acosta’s counter-affidavit filed over his illegal possession of explosives charge: http://pinoyweekly.org/new/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ERICSON-ACOSTA-COUNTER-AFFIDAVIT.pdf

WHO IS ERICSON ACOSTA?

Free Ericson Acosta flyer

http://www.unison.org.uk/international/pages_view.asp?did=12934

As part of its 50th anniversary celebrations, Amnesty International made a number of awards for outstanding achievements in defending human rights. UNISON was proud to be included in the roll of honour for its work on the Philippines.

In a light-hearted ceremony some very serious work in defence of human rights around the globe was acknowledged.

UNISON was congratulated for its work in raising awareness of human rights violations in the Philippines. This included working with Amnesty International UK in providing opportunities for human rights defenders in the Philippines to come to Europe to raise awareness of the situation in their country. UNISON was also commended for working with overseas filipino workers (OFWs) in the UK in realising their rights.

Branch international officers, Louise Giblin and Kaila McCulloch from Scotland, received the award on behalf of UNISON at Amnesty’s annual conference in Belfast.

24 January 2011

2011 marks the dawn of a new strategic approach to combating insurgencies that have long bedevilled the Philippines. An internecine conflict, bred by a political system that entrenches the segmental concentration of power in the archipelago, has resulted in a catalogue of state-led extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. The new tactic – ‘Oplan Bayanihan’ (‘Operation Community Volunteerism’) – purportedly promotes the protection of human rights within a framework of community-centred development, drawing on the American Counter-Insurgency (COIN) Guide of 2009 [pdf] composed under General David Petraeus.

Bayanihan succeeds ‘Oplan Bantay Laya’ (‘Operation Freedom Watch’), which lumped together in one bracket armed insurgents, student activists, priests, teachers and anyone else who gave tacit support to countervailing ideologies. However, without direct recourse to addressing the systemic politico-economic underpinnings of conflict which encourage new cadres to oppose the state, Bayanihan may represent only a cosmetic shift in addressing insurgency.

A year on from the Maguindano killings, a starkly visceral evocation of an endemic culture of political violence, much is claimed to have changed in the Philippines, yet, much remains the same.
Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino, son of 1986 ‘democratisation’ heroine Corazon Aquino, won office in May 2010 from outgoing president Arroyo, widely castigated for her legion of human rights abuses, alleged electoral fraud and corruption. Aquino’s electoral platform, as with many predecessors, was reform. Within ten days of ascending to the presidency, five extrajudicial killings spurred a group of leading bishops to question his commitment to eradicating the prevalent “culture of impunity”, while by September the tally was sixteen extrajudicial killings and two enforced disappearances. Aquino’s commitment to human rights has also been questioned by the decision to avoid the 2010 Nobel Prize ceremony, passed off as a diplomatic double-booking error. Yet few should be surprised at the president’s willingness to capitulate to his most influential overseas patrons: Aquino decided, against the grain of regional diplomatic niceties, to snub Asean in favour of a first overseas visit to America.

While initially endorsing and renewing Bantay Laya – which as a former Philippine army officer admitted to this author led directly to the conflating of civilian activists and armed rebels by frontline soldiers – Aquino has now endorsed Bayanihan. The shift is reflected by a growing discontent and recognition in Philippine society of enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killing, with the film ‘Dukot’ (‘Disappearance’), which chronicles the abduction of a student activist and his girlfriend by the military, winning at the Famas (Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences Awards) awards.

The language of Bayanihan is designed to inspire renewed belief in the military’s attitude to insurgency while concurrently placing blame for past violations on low-ranking soldiers and absolving the military hierarchy of responsibility. It is tagged as a ‘people-centred’ strategy focusing on development and protecting human rights; notably, a soldier’s handbook on human rights has been produced, while soldiers’ wages will double.

However, as Anakpawis representative Rafael Mariano argues, the policy, “promises so-called development while maintaining the status quo…the monopoly and control of the few of the country’s resources”. It is the potential to reverse this economic and political status quo, in existence for as long as the structures of the modern Philippine state, which will determine the success or otherwise of Bayanihan.
While the Philippines has enjoyed strong economic growth averaging more than five percent per year since 2001 and is currently matched only by Thailand in the Asean region, some thirty percent of people livebelow the poverty line: growth has markedly failed to alleviate the poverty, inequality and disenchantment that fuels the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology of Philippine communists and other insurgents.

Why then, in a democracy, do the populous not vote for a change in governance that would bring greater socio-economic equality and opportunity? Put simply, Philippine ‘democracy’, hailed for its vibrancy with scant regard to its efficiency, lack of a functioning party system, and predilection for provincial co-optation, does not give this option.
While democratic governance reaches back to the colonial era, it ensures now as it did then that for provincial elites and the presidents who manage to co-opt them, political power and its concomitant of economic wealth and further ‘electoral’ success will be guaranteed in an un-virtuous circle, regardless of society’s wishes. It was colonial rule that ensured the predominance of effectively party-less provincial ‘caciques’ (‘chiefs’) over the Philippine state and the manner in which national leaders are beholden to provincial clans and warlords enmeshed in a factional system promoting violence and fraud to gain the spoils of office.

American democracy, installed with the colonial rhetoric of benevolent assimilation after the massacre of some 500,000 Filipinos, failed in producing policies of note to benefit wider society. However, the system did, as planned, enrich caciques eager to lithify their provincial power through collaboration with their colonial masters. Legislation such as the Payne-Aldrich Act led to massive cacique enrichment through having in-demand tropical crops produced under a tax-free tariff wall providing access to American markets; concurrently, the majority were ostracised from a system in which national power was rotated among provincial rulers, none of whom would consider undercutting local power.

Andal Ampatuan of Maguindanao, the man behind the 2009 massacre, is a shining example of the colonial inheritance of provincial power and national-provincial clientilism. Ampatuan was well known to be close to Arroyo: Arroyo’s closest rival recorded no votes at all in three towns he controlled in the 2004 presidential elections. In return, he held a private army of 500 men, ran uncontested in gubernatorial re-election bids, his son was permitted to stand for governor in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao – becoming the first governor with no rebel links – and he held a government memorandum authorising his civilian volunteer organisations to bear arms.

Against this backdrop, well understood by anti-state actors, the potential success of a policy which seeks to halt conflicts which have their roots in political and economic inequality without addressing the systemic causes of that inequality is questionable at best.
As insurgency expert Robert Kilcullen notes, the aim of counter-insurgency is to “return the insurgency’s parent society to its normal mode of interaction.” In the Philippines it is the normal mode of interaction itself which promotes insurgency, with the veneer of Philippine ‘democracy’ and economic growth sating only the relatively few who benefit from it.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/entertainment/12/08/10/pinoy-human-rights-film-ends-europe-tour-london

LONDON – Filipino human rights film “Dukot” ends its European tour here following a string of public screenings and talks around the continent.

Launched in The Netherlands in October, the film toured Europe for over a month with stops in Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, and Italy, before concluding in England around Human Rights Day on December 10.

The London screening was attended by a multicultural crowd of concerned citizens, from seasoned activists to young professionals without prior knowledge of human rights issues. Consul General Maria Theresa Dizon-de Vega from the Philippine Embassy in London was also in attendance to support the event.

Directed by Joel Lamangan with an all-star cast, “Dukot” follows the story of a young couple from the Philippines who were abducted, tortured, abused and slaughtered by armed government crooks, seemingly because of their involvement with political activism.

“We want to highlight human rights abuses and violations in the Philippines, and “Dukot” chronicles this in dramatic form. It’s a powerful way for people to appreciate it, rather than just reading news stories or opinion pieces,” said Mark Dearn from Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines (CHRP), who co-organized the event.

He added: “It’s a problem that’s endemic to Philippine politics. The victims are anybody who decides to challenge the state, and that can be anybody from armed rebels, all the way to the average student. I don’t think you can get anything more pressing than when a government oppresses its own citizens in that way.”

The screenings were part of an ongoing international awareness campaign for human rights issues in the Philippines, particularly from the last 10 years. Prior to its European tour, the film has been shown in various countries in East Asia and North America, and was an official selection in the 2009 Montreal Film Festival.

“[The film] functions very well in the level of raising awareness for those who aren’t aware of these issues,” explained Dearn. “Awareness and global attention seems to have an effect on the incidences of enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings. When Global Awareness focused on this issue, there was a drop-off in the number of enforced disappearances and killings. Unfortunately, this has risen up again towards the end of Arroyo’s regime.”

According to a report by Philippine-based independent organization Karapatan, thousands of innocent activists have fallen victim to human rights violations under the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a trend that seems to have continued through to the new Aquino administration (see table below).

“[Dukot] is a good educational tool. It gives me knowledge of the reality of being an activist. I think there is nothing wrong in trying to voice out our opinions, and that is what we call freedom of speech,” observed Josefa Aaliyah Cassandra, a UK-based Filipino health professional and equal rights activist, who was moved by the film’s message.

She added: “We have to help those activists in the Philippines, and try to educate them that our voices can still be heard by expressing them in a more civilized manner. But also for the government to understand that there is nothing wrong in trying to voice your opinion or campaigning for what should be right, especially for the oppressed.”

Though definitive solutions to these problems remain elusive even to campaigners, there is an overwhelming sense of urgency to their message of acknowledging and addressing human rights issues, a call for action directed towards fellow Filipinos, the international community, and the Philippine government itself.

“If we’re truly going to be a democracy, these sort of things shouldn’t really happen, and the army shouldn’t really have the sort of power that it seems to have,” explained Fernando Santiago from nonprofit organization Kanlungan, co-organizers of the London event.

He concluded: “Having the authorities in the Philippines be called to answer for the fact that the world is watching, and wants change, and wants the Philippines to join the rest of the democratic world, these things have to be addressed and not just be swept under the carpet.”

The activists are urging the newly elected President Benigno Aquino III, who himself comes from a family with firsthand experience of human rights abuse, to address these concerns in the hope of making positive changes in socio-political affairs in the Philippines.

Recorded Human Rights Violations in the Philippines, 2001-2010

Source: KARAPATAN, 2010 Year-End Report on Human Rights in the Philippines (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights)

(Photo courtesy of IFJ)

4 March 2010

http://www.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-joins-london-call-on-president-arroyo-to-stamp-out-impunity-in-the-philippines

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the National Union of Journalists in Great Britain and Ireland (NUJ), joined the Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines and Amnesty International at a rally yesterday at the Human Rights Action Centre in London to mark 100 days since the massacre of 23 November 2009, which left 57 people dead, including 32 journalists in the southern province of Maguindanao in the Philippines.

“The Arroyo government is responsible for allowing a culture of impunity to grow over the past decade that created the conditions in which the Ampatuan Town massacre could take place,” said Jim Boumelha, IFJ President.

The IFJ is particularly critical of the decision to promote General Alfred Cayton to deputy commander of the Philippine army within weeks of him refusing a military escort for the convoy that was subsequently massacred. Victims’ families have since launched a civil action against General Cayton

“This promotion not only rewards a fatal act of gross negligence, but also makes clear the government’s determination not to investigate the role and responsibility of the military in this massacre,” added Boumelha.

The IFJ is also critical of President Arroyo’s vaguely-worded Executive Order 546 issued in 2006 which allowed the use of neighbourhood-watch type armed “force multipliers,” or Civilian Volunteer Organisations, in counterinsurgency operations. These, in practice, effectively supported paramilitary groups and legalised private armies of politicians and other local strongmen.

The IFJ links the use of private armies to the growing number of extrajudicial killings and disappearances for which nobody has ever been brought to justice. Prior to this massacre, some 104 journalists had met violent deaths since 1984. The murder of the 32 journalists and media workers, along with 25 other victims, is the single worst atrocity against the media and makes the Philippines the most dangerous country for journalists outside Iraq.

The IFJ joins the NUJ UK and the Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines in issuing a statement urging the Government of the Philippines to act on its commitment under International Obligations and Actions, including the Geneva Convention, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 2006 UN Security Council resolution 1738 that obliges governments to protect journalists in conflict zones.

In particular, the group is demanding that President Arroyo revokes Executive Order 546 which allows militias to operate. With regard to the massacre itself, that Government :

- gives full support to the families of the victims – financial, medical and legal;
investigates the inaction and alleged collusion of the military structures and commands prior to the massacre;
- gives sufficient resources and independence to prosecutors and the judiciary to guarantee a speedy and effective investigations , trial and crucially guarantees the safety and protection of all witnesses to the massacre and ;
- ensures a safe environment in which media across the country can report on the May 10th election.

For more information, please call the IFJ at +32 2 235 2207

The IFJ represents more than 600.000 journalists in 125 countries